Ant Scans, Lunar Chickpeas, Hidden Galaxies & Superconductivity (EP 40)
From From First Principles by Krishna Choudhary and Lester Nare
April 29, 2026 · 37 min · Season 2 · Episode 40
About this episode
The episode covers four new science stories including ant imaging, lunar agriculture, AI discoveries in the Hubble archive, and superconductivity advancements.
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary , this rundown episode covers four new science stories at a high level: a huge new 3D ant imaging database built with synchrotron X-ray microtomography, a lunar agriculture experiment that grew chickpeas in simulated moon soil using fungi and worm waste, AI-assisted discovery of strange objects in the Hubble archive, and a new programmatic roadmap for room-temperature superconductivity. There is also another round of Are You Smarter Than a Scientist? in the middle. Summary Particle accelerators meet biodiversity — researchers built a massive high-resolution ant imaging resource, covering nearly 800 species and thousands of specimens, with AI-assisted 3D reconstruction. Moon farming gets weird — chickpeas were grown in lunar regolith simulant with help from mycorrhizal fungi and worm-derived compost, a first step toward sustainable off-world agriculture. AI found hidden anomalies in Hubble’s archive — AnomalyMatch sifted through roughly 100 million source cutouts in just days and surfaced new candidate lenses, mergers, and other rare objects. The superconductivity long game — a new PNAS perspective argues that room-temperature…
People in this episode
Hosts: Lester Nare, Krishna Choudhary
Topics covered
- ant imaging
- lunar agriculture
- AI discovery
- superconductivity
- biodiversity
- space exploration
Keywords
- 3D imaging
- chickpeas
- fungi
- worm waste
- superconductivity
- Hubble archive
- AI-assisted discovery
- biodiversity
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Hubble, PNAS
Products: AnomalyMatch
Places: moon, lunar regolith
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